Red card pivotal in defeat

A red card while leading proved costly as Maidstone suffered a last-gasp home defeat by Park House in Kent 2 on Saturday. The hosts were in charge at 15-3 up when Josh Smith was sent off after catching a visiting player with his arm.

Maidstone added a second-half penalty but Park House fought back and pinched a 20-18 victory in the final seconds.

The visitors took the win with a penalty in front of the posts after Maidstone were caught offside.

Earlier, Smith had continued his good form with another try, while winger Ollie Jenkins added a cracking score.

Lex Ayling kicked a conversion and two penalties to complete Maidstone’s tally.

“I don’t think you’re ever coasting at 15-3 up but we were quite comfortable and playing very well before the red card,” said director of rugby Steve Oram.

“It’s one of those where Josh has stuck his arm out and connected with their player’s head, not maliciously or even that strongly.

“If you do that and you connect, it’s a lottery how the referee calls it. “We had one against us at Anchorians, that was only a yellow card, but you’re always taking your chances.

“We held on, we were 18-17 up with two minutes to go, when we made a mistake in our 22.

“The ball got turned over and in our keenness to get it back we were caught offside in front of the posts.

“They won it with literally the last kick of the game.

“The opposition coach said the best side lost and so did quite a few of their players.

“What our performance does is reinforce that we’ve found a way of playing that suits us and whereas we were going into games expecting to lose and hoping not to, we’re now expecting to win.

“You can see that in the confidence we’re playing with and the fact we have a style that can cause problems to the senior teams in this league.

“We got a losing bonus point out of it, which puts us six points clear of Hastings & Bexhill, who are second-bottom.

“That’s also important, because there’s now more than one win between us.”

Smith was set to learn at a hearing last night (Wednesday) whether he will be banned for this Saturday’s game at Old Dunstonians, who are one place and three points ahead of Maidstone.

A bonus-point win there and Oram’s side will climb to ninth, which would be their highest position all season.

He said: “Having been the noticeably stronger side against Park House, who are fourth in the league, we have that confidence now to say Old Dunstonians have been struggling a bit, we should be expecting to go there and win that game.

“Previously, before this run we’ve been on, when we didn’t have confidence, we’d maybe ship one or two scores early on and we’d see heads go down.”